G Model ANORL-296; No. of Pages 2
ARTICLE IN PRESS European Annals of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck diseases xxx (2014) xxx–xxx
Available online at
ScienceDirect www.sciencedirect.com
Editorial
Abecedarium: Who am I? P’. . .
Dear sirs, I was small, unimposing and self-effacing by nature. All witnesses concur in praising my modesty and kindliness. And yet, I reached the pinnacle of fame and honour. . . I was born in Yarmouth, England, on 11th January 1814, the eighth of sixteen children (only nine of whom survived into adulthood). My father was a brewer and ships’ chandler, who made his fortune supplying the Navy during the Napoleonic War, but lost it all in the recession that followed. I was growing up just when my country had brought the “Corsican Ogre” to his knees, and at first had what I would later call “the very silly wish” to join the Navy. My mother, however, finally persuaded me to go as an apprentice to a surgeon-apothecary instead. I was 16 years old. Thus, I learned, on the shop floor, the nuts and bolts of my future career – bleeding, and various other procedures intended to heal the ills afflicting the good people of the Isle of Wight, which included typhoid fever and cholera. Lectures were held at the Angel Inn. After four years, I enrolled at Saint-Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. We did not receive much guidance, but I had a natural aptitude and qualified as a surgeon in 1836, coming first in all the exams. Fascinated by what at the time was called “natural history”, I made the princeps observation of what turned out to be a fearsome parasitosis, trichinosis, and, as the best textbooks were in French and German, I taught myself those two languages. I was getting almost no financial help from my family, and paid my way for seven years by teaching, running dissection classes and looking after the hospital museum. While still pursuing my scientific work, I went into private practice in 1851. I was working nearly seventeen hours a day, writing dozens of articles and making endless innovations, such as water mattress I invented for the prevention of bedsores. After difficult beginnings, my diagnostic flair and efficiency made me, once I had finally secured an appointment as a surgeon at SaintBart’s, one of the greatest practitioners of the Victorian era. I became a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, who bestowed a knighthood on me. Along with my friend Rudolph Virchow, I am considered (Fig. 1) one of the founders of pathology. I became rich and famous – a friend of Pasteur, Darwin, Tennyson and everyone who mattered in London; even so, I lived quite modestly, even frugally, with my beloved
DOI of original article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aforl.2014.01.010.
Lydia, whom I had married in the teeth of opposition from my family. She was a musician, and gave me six children. I was by now making a good living, and was able to pay off all my father’s debts, including to creditors who were not even pressing for payment. In 1871, I very nearly died of blood poisoning contracted during an autopsy, and gave up my hospital work, although I continued with my private practice and teaching. My lectures drew crowds that were not only numerous but attentive and even enthusiastic. My ability to give the overall picture was proverbial. By the way, I would also remind you that I was one of the first to argue for the place of women in our profession, and also that “French physicians treat the disease, English, the patient.” My dear wife died in 1885, shortly after our golden wedding anniversary. I went into a decline and began to lose my eyesight. My deep religious faith, however, supported me, and I finally
Fig. 1.
1879-7296/$ – see front matter © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anorl.2013.10.001
Please cite this article in press as: Werner A, et al. Abecedarium: Who am I? P’. . .. European Annals of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck diseases (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anorl.2013.10.001
G Model ANORL-296; No. of Pages 2
ARTICLE IN PRESS Editorial / European Annals of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck diseases xxx (2014) xxx–xxx
2
succumbed to a stroke, in London, on 30th December 1899. At my funeral, directed by one of my sons, who was the Bishop of Oxford, a gathering of medical students stood as a guard of honour for me. There are several medical institutions and associations that bear my name, as do more than twenty pathologies; in your field of ENT, I described a form of mixed hearing loss in a bone disease I discovered in 1876. . . Yours truly, Sir James Paget
Disclosure of interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest concerning this article.
A. Werner 18, rue de la Ferme, 92200 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France I. McGill Place du Plâtre, 69930 Saint-Laurent de Chamousset, France O. Laccourreye ∗ Université Paris-Descartes Sorbonne Paris Cité, Service d’oto-rhino-laryngologie et de Chirurgie Cervico-Faciale, Hôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou, HEGP, AP–HP, 20-40, rue Leblanc, 75015 Paris, France ∗ Corresponding
author. Tel.: +33 1 56 09 34 63. E-mail address: [email protected] (O. Laccourreye)
Please cite this article in press as: Werner A, et al. Abecedarium: Who am I? P’. . .. European Annals of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck diseases (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anorl.2013.10.001
ARTICLE IN PRESS European Annals of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck diseases xxx (2014) xxx–xxx
Available online at
ScienceDirect www.sciencedirect.com
Editorial
Abecedarium: Who am I? P’. . .
Dear sirs, I was small, unimposing and self-effacing by nature. All witnesses concur in praising my modesty and kindliness. And yet, I reached the pinnacle of fame and honour. . . I was born in Yarmouth, England, on 11th January 1814, the eighth of sixteen children (only nine of whom survived into adulthood). My father was a brewer and ships’ chandler, who made his fortune supplying the Navy during the Napoleonic War, but lost it all in the recession that followed. I was growing up just when my country had brought the “Corsican Ogre” to his knees, and at first had what I would later call “the very silly wish” to join the Navy. My mother, however, finally persuaded me to go as an apprentice to a surgeon-apothecary instead. I was 16 years old. Thus, I learned, on the shop floor, the nuts and bolts of my future career – bleeding, and various other procedures intended to heal the ills afflicting the good people of the Isle of Wight, which included typhoid fever and cholera. Lectures were held at the Angel Inn. After four years, I enrolled at Saint-Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. We did not receive much guidance, but I had a natural aptitude and qualified as a surgeon in 1836, coming first in all the exams. Fascinated by what at the time was called “natural history”, I made the princeps observation of what turned out to be a fearsome parasitosis, trichinosis, and, as the best textbooks were in French and German, I taught myself those two languages. I was getting almost no financial help from my family, and paid my way for seven years by teaching, running dissection classes and looking after the hospital museum. While still pursuing my scientific work, I went into private practice in 1851. I was working nearly seventeen hours a day, writing dozens of articles and making endless innovations, such as water mattress I invented for the prevention of bedsores. After difficult beginnings, my diagnostic flair and efficiency made me, once I had finally secured an appointment as a surgeon at SaintBart’s, one of the greatest practitioners of the Victorian era. I became a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and Surgeon Extraordinary to Queen Victoria, who bestowed a knighthood on me. Along with my friend Rudolph Virchow, I am considered (Fig. 1) one of the founders of pathology. I became rich and famous – a friend of Pasteur, Darwin, Tennyson and everyone who mattered in London; even so, I lived quite modestly, even frugally, with my beloved
DOI of original article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aforl.2014.01.010.
Lydia, whom I had married in the teeth of opposition from my family. She was a musician, and gave me six children. I was by now making a good living, and was able to pay off all my father’s debts, including to creditors who were not even pressing for payment. In 1871, I very nearly died of blood poisoning contracted during an autopsy, and gave up my hospital work, although I continued with my private practice and teaching. My lectures drew crowds that were not only numerous but attentive and even enthusiastic. My ability to give the overall picture was proverbial. By the way, I would also remind you that I was one of the first to argue for the place of women in our profession, and also that “French physicians treat the disease, English, the patient.” My dear wife died in 1885, shortly after our golden wedding anniversary. I went into a decline and began to lose my eyesight. My deep religious faith, however, supported me, and I finally
Fig. 1.
1879-7296/$ – see front matter © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anorl.2013.10.001
Please cite this article in press as: Werner A, et al. Abecedarium: Who am I? P’. . .. European Annals of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck diseases (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anorl.2013.10.001
G Model ANORL-296; No. of Pages 2
ARTICLE IN PRESS Editorial / European Annals of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck diseases xxx (2014) xxx–xxx
2
succumbed to a stroke, in London, on 30th December 1899. At my funeral, directed by one of my sons, who was the Bishop of Oxford, a gathering of medical students stood as a guard of honour for me. There are several medical institutions and associations that bear my name, as do more than twenty pathologies; in your field of ENT, I described a form of mixed hearing loss in a bone disease I discovered in 1876. . . Yours truly, Sir James Paget
Disclosure of interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest concerning this article.
A. Werner 18, rue de la Ferme, 92200 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France I. McGill Place du Plâtre, 69930 Saint-Laurent de Chamousset, France O. Laccourreye ∗ Université Paris-Descartes Sorbonne Paris Cité, Service d’oto-rhino-laryngologie et de Chirurgie Cervico-Faciale, Hôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou, HEGP, AP–HP, 20-40, rue Leblanc, 75015 Paris, France ∗ Corresponding
author. Tel.: +33 1 56 09 34 63. E-mail address: [email protected] (O. Laccourreye)
Please cite this article in press as: Werner A, et al. Abecedarium: Who am I? P’. . .. European Annals of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck diseases (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anorl.2013.10.001
